Canada Dominates China in Men's Hockey at 2022 Winter Olympics

Coming off a loss to the United States on Saturday, Canada rebounded nicely with a 5-0 win over China in the final game of the preliminary round at the 2022 Winter Olympics for both teams. 

Both countries were already assured a spot in the playoff round. Sunday's game was more about determining seeding than anything else. Canada finished second in Group A with a 2-0-0-1 record and plus-seven goal differential. 

China was one of three winless teams in group play, along with Switzerland (0-0-1-2) in Group B and Latvia in (0-0-0-3) in Group C. The host team had the worst goal differential of the 12 teams in the field (minus-14). 

The Canadians wasted no time asserting themselves in this matchup with three goals in the first period. Ben Street got the scoring started 129 seconds into the game. 

Adam Tambellini and Eric O'Dell followed with goals of their own against China goalie Yongli Ouban. Tyler Wotherspoon assisted on both goals. 

Ouban did settle down after that early barrage to at least give his team a chance to fight back. The Canadian defense didn't make that easy, and Matt Tomkins was excellent in the net with 24 saves to get the shutout in his first start of the Olympics. 

Canada's offense came back with goals from Kent Johnson late in the second period and Corban Knight early in the third period to turn the game into a blowout. 

Tomkins started in place of Eddie Pasquale, who gave up five goals on 51 shot attempts in the previous two games. 

Pasquale took the blame for two mistakes that led to goals for the United States in Saturday's 4-2 win over Canada. 

There have also been some calls to give Devon Levi, the 20-year-old Buffalo Sabres prospect who currently attends Northeastern, a chance to start. 

"You look at his numbers, and it’s absolutely incredible," Canada general manager Shane Doan told reporters about including Levi on the roster. "He’s doing things at the NCAA level that just don’t happen."

Levi has a 1.55 goals against-average, .948 save percentage and nine shutouts in 24 games for Northeastern this season.

It's hard to evaluate how much of an improvement Tomkins might be over Pasquale because of the level of competition he went up against. China has been the worst team in the tournament thus far with just two goals in three games. 

But Tomkins did at least give head coach Claude Julien something to think about as he looks ahead to the knockout stage. 

These two teams will meet again in the qualification playoffs on Monday or Tuesday.